I'll be perfectly honest with you Eddies fans, no disrespect intended at all, but your team coming in Saturday was exactly the first round match I wanted for the Strikers. I just think the Strikers play well against Edmonton, and they are very confident in facing them. I fully expect a 2-goal win Saturday.

All that said, I have maximum respect for what Edmonton was able to accomplish this year, their first in pro soccer. I think you all have a lot to build on for the future, both on the field and with your fans. All you really need to really propel your team further forward it seems is a better stadium situation.

I agree. The Eddies have done well in yr1 and it is especially promising that they've done it with largely local/Canadian talent - a strategy apparently abandoned by the other Canadian MLS (and soon to be MLS) teams. With a few Dutch imports and a bunch of local kids, FCE have surpassed expectations. Stadium notwithstanding, the base for the future looks promising.

As for Saturday vs. Fart LouderDale (not to be intended as toilet humour, rather it is how I expect the locals enunciate), I am fully aware that FCE is an underdog going into this match... but the ball is round and it can roll either way.

The game will be won in midfield. That, and set pieces will dictate the victor of this matchup.

In his blog (on the Dutch site http://www.ed.nl), our Dutch import Ilja van Leerdam gave his impressions of where his collective N.American teammates lack. Basically he said (paraphrasing from Dutch):

Because we like to play a position game with an extra man in midfield, we sometimes take too many risks... The players are all good players individually, only when something happens in the field, they tend to react rather than see the situation coming.

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This was a quote from mid-August when the team was amidst a 4 game losing streak. Since then, we supporters hope that coach Sinkgraven (along with Ilja in the middle) have gotten across a more proactive style where we win the midfield, even when we lose the ball.

It's going to all come down to how FCE starts and how fresh they kept the legs. Tweets from the players last week suggested they were worked pretty hard to keep them in game shape, so we'll see if that week off was put to good use. We already beat them in Florida once, so we know it's entirely possible.

FCE did surprised a lot of people this year, not only because of being an expansion team, but also because they did so well with a group of relatively unknown and unproven Canadians. More than 77% of available minutes were played by Canadians. As a point of comparison, Montreal employed Canadians only 21% of available NASL minutes.

Die hard Canadian soccer fans, all too often, complain about lacking depth and development opportunities in our footie talent pool. Maybe because pro clubs don't dare try Cdns in their lineups. FCE proved that there is talent to be fostered, so long as it in the right conditions. Taking a group of players mostly from Western Canada, and managing to do rather well in the second highest level of footie in N.America is certainly commendable.

Question becomes, how to keep the momentum in year 2 and beyond...

Another question is how long it will take before I can choose FC Edmonton as my favourite club in my BigSoccer profile...

FCE did surprised a lot of people this year, not only because of being an expansion team, but also because they did so well with a group of relatively unknown and unproven Canadians. More than 77% of available minutes were played by Canadians. As a point of comparison, Montreal employed Canadians only 21% of available NASL minutes.

Die hard Canadian soccer fans, all too often, complain about lacking depth and development opportunities in our footie talent pool. Maybe because pro clubs don't dare try Cdns in their lineups. FCE proved that there is talent to be fostered, so long as it in the right conditions. Taking a group of players mostly from Western Canada, and managing to do rather well in the second highest level of footie in N.America is certainly commendable.

Question becomes, how to keep the momentum in year 2 and beyond...

Another question is how long it will take before I can choose FC Edmonton as my favourite club in my BigSoccer profile...

Click to expand...

I enjoyed watching your team, I just hope in the next few years they can Improve the stadium situation. But here is too your club having a long history that people will be watching for decades to come.